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Mother, Twins Die During Natural Birth Although She Asks For C-Section

A New York father is suing a hospital after his pregnant wife died along with their twin babies during natural childbirth after she had asked for a cesarean section.

Tafari Brathwaite plans to sue Staten Island’s Richmond University Hospital after his common-law wife Victoria Rexach, 30, and their twins Chali and Chassidy died in late August.

Rexach, who had two C-sections when she delivered her other kids, went into premature labor in August. She was just under six months pregnant.

Her family and her doctor, a high-risk specialist, both wanted her to have a C-section, but Richmond doctors allegedly moved forward with a natural birth.

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The twins died just minutes after they were born. Rexach lost a great deal of blood and went into cardiac arrest, the family said.

“She screamed, and then she was just holding my hand and then her eyes closed and I kept smacking her face, telling her, 'Don't fall asleep on me, don't fall asleep,''' Brathwaite told NBC New York.

“She looked at me and said 'OK' and then closed her eyes, and that was the last time I saw her,” he said.

"That's the first thing I asked, is why didn't they give her a C-section," said her grandmother Detrice Williams. "She was a good girl."

“It's the most devastating thing that has ever happened to me and my family,” Brathwaite said.

Rexach leaves behind two young children, ages 4 and 10.

"My two little great-grands are now without their mother," said Williams.

The hospital stood by its actions.

“The hospital and our staff who provided care to the patient worked diligently and heroically to save the life of this young woman, who had a very complex obstetrical history,” the hospital said in a statement.